GLBTQ Organization

Have you every wondered what you can do to urge people to get up and do something? I have, in fact I have wondered that for a few months now, more than a few months to be honest.
I have to say there are some really good people that help do things in this community. They are wonderful, they have great ideas, they have ambition and they have passion. Oh, but compared to what we have to do, compared to the fight we have ahead of us, these few people are being worked to death. Burnouts are happening all over and we lose the fight.

How?

I ask, how can you inspire people to wake up, to donate just an hour or two a week to something that affects their lives. Are there people in the LGBT community in this area that just don’t care what happens? I suppose there could be. I was young once. I remember going to the clubs, partying and waking up not knowing where I was or who the person next to me was.
I remember waking up during the week, going to work, going out on dates, and going to sleep not even in the least bit interested in what was going on with the laws. Oh I knew I could not legally get married to the woman I loved that week. But, really to be honest I was more like thumbing my nose at the government and getting married in my own eyes. Ceremony and everything, I mean who needs paper and a priest to get married right? They can’t tell me how I feel about the person I am planning on spending my life with. Wow, there were a lot of those “ceremonies”
I am not that same person anymore. I am the one who says. “Churches stay out of the bedroom, it is not your place and stay out of the government” Did they forget the whole separation of church and state? Of course they did, because all they want is what THEY THINK is the right thing for people to do.
I am a person who wants to get married to the woman I am with. Yes, I was born female, and right now North Carolina will not let me marry the woman I love.
Now my story well some could get mad about, but I would hope they wouldn’t. I am a FTM transgender. For those that do not know what that means. It means I was born with a female body, but I am a male inside my head , heart and soul. Now I want my body to represent that. Now since the state I was born in will change the gender marking on my birth certificate when I finish my transition NC will not be able to stop me from getting married if the laws are still the same then.
I know some are thinking, oh great, so change your sex and you can get married.
That is not what I am transgender, but I can understand people thinking that if they do not know me. I cannot control your thoughts. So I am not going to say anymore on that subject.
What I am going to say is this.
May 8th 2012, providing the date does not get moved, there will be on the ballot for people to vote “For” or “Against” Amendment One
On that ballot the wording will be “Marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this state”
Some people, I won’t mention and groups or religious organizations are steadily talking about how if this does not go through then we will have gay marriage all over. Ok, well this is NOT just about gay marriage people. It is already illegal in the state of North Carolina, so voting against the amendment is not going to suddenly allow gay people to get married in NC.
However, let me tell you what it will do to all relationships whether it be a straight one or gay one. If you are not married and your partner abuses you, there will be no protections for you because you do not have a legal domestic union.
If you are a straight couple who has been together for years, but decided you did not need the state’s permission or piece of paper to say you are a committed couple and one of you end up sick, or dies, the remaining partner is basically screwed. The surviving partner does not have any rights to any property that was in the deceased’s name. They will not have any rights to their SSI, they will have no legal say on how to take care of the deceased’s body, or to make medical decisions. Say you and your love has decided that neither of you want to live on a machine should something that awful happens. Yet, a child, or a sister of the person ill decides they are not going to make the decision to let them go over. The partner has no legal say.
Second parent adoptions? Nope, they will not be valid, not only will they not be valid, the mother or father who is not blood related to the child will not have any legal ties to the child. What happens if there is a tragic accident and your partner is killed? What happens is the state takes the child, you have been raising together, away from you. You will have to fight to gain custody of your own child, and maybe just maybe they will let you adopt them, if there is not a blood relative who wants the child. This is not just about gay couples, this will happen to any couple who does not have a marriage that is between one man and one woman as being recognized as the only domestic union legal in the state of North Carolina.
Oh maybe you will get lucky and your partner’s family just loves you and would never not include you in the decisions if something bad happens. Or, of course they would never take your child away. Because they just love you. Do you really want to take that chance?
Do you want to let them write discrimination into our state constitution?
If you don’t, then get out there and vote against the amendment and get involved in actions to fight it. Get involved in organizations that are working to have equal rights for everyone.
Hey sometimes we have some fun things to do as well.